Boston tenants cry foul as rents rise along with new skyscrapers. Landlords are defending themselves in the media. Supply and demand are at each other’s throats in the Boston rental market. It’s not quite as bad as in Milton, Mass., where a departing…

Lobbies can be luxurious and grand with high ceilings, elaborate moldings, marble flooring, and elegant furnishings that reflect another era when vintage apartment buildings were built with sprawling entry areas. Nowadays, even when smaller, lobbies may be coolly modern with…

In the first two posts in this series, we covered the costs of building a self-service laundry room and six questions to ask that help determine if the effort is worth your while when accounting for maintenance expenses, enforcement of…

The truth is, tenants can’t be blamed for everything. Sometimes cracks that appear on the ceilings and walls are from normal wear and tear. And in most cases, this means repairing it will take a little more elbow grease. Don’t…

The best partnerships between property managers and building owners leave little to chance, yet provide flexibility when the unforeseen occurs. A horrendous fire roars through a building, flood waters cascade in through the foundation, and roofs collapse due to feet…

With so many disasters in recent years — often with little warning and in unexpected locales, make protecting your building and tenants a top priority. Not only is it critical to keep the four walls, roof, and basement secure from…

This winter, record snowfall in the Northeast in cities like Boston have caused one snow emergency after another. Never-before-seen crises have included shutdowns of public transportation system for days at a time and major pile-ups on slick area highways. Home…

When tenants move out, they might take all their belongings off the walls but there’s a high probability that they’ll leave behind holes and dings — especially if they couldn’t find the stud “the first time.” Fortunately, it’s easy to…

In 2001, Jim Collins authored one of the biggest blockbuster business books of all time. It was called Good to Great, and in it Collins laid out seven traits of great companies, the first of which was that great organizations…

Everybody likes a freebie, or something extra. Condominium and apartment amenities are hardly new. International Village in Bloomington, Minnesota, opened in 1968 with perks that could rival those now used to woo buyers and renters — pools, hot tubs, and…